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NXT LIVE EVENT REPORT
AUGUST 11, 2017
SAN JOSE, CALIF.
REPORT BY JEFF FROM COLORADO, PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT
Sorry for the delay in getting these reports to you. Vacation, visiting with friends and family, along with only having an iPhone to type this all out and send your way made it more difficult than I had imagined it would be.
It was announced as a sold out although the corner upper sections were totally empty and some of the upper rows at the top were scattered. Pretty filled in everywhere else though.
A Triple H video welcomed us and reminded us it is “our NXT.” No boos surprisingly, but no loud cheers either. Loads of Bullet Club shirts. This was my first NXT show. I was disappointed the bell was digital, or at least I think it was…
(1) Johnny Gargano beat Andrade Cien Almas. It started off slow. Basically just Almas glaming and then Gargano mocking him. Then they got started with a collar and elbow lockup, but it still took awhile for the action to get going. Not in a bad way, but it wasn’t rockets from the start. Through the ropes spear near two fall from Gargano. Loads of action near the end. A submission finisher for Gargano. Loads of “Johnny Wrestling” chants. Good back and forth match. I’ve always like Gargano, and this match just proved me right. He has a really good energy. While he was respected. I was surprised he didn’t get as much reaction as I would have expected. I’d come to realize why that was.
(2) Ruby Riot & Sarah Logan beat Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose. Logan is doing a country gimmick. Mandy was doing a sexy strut hair band rock gimmick; think Pour some sugar on me. There were “Sarah Logan” chants and she was acting like “oh come on” but flattered. TONS of “Mandy” chants. Sonya came in and broke up a pin fall. Sarah ran in to take on Sonya. Ruby got back with Mandy. Quite a bit of boos when Ruby was picking up the action. Ruby eventually got the win with her finisher. Mandy clearly has the young man audience because of her, um, assets. Riot got the cheers, but the audience wanted Mandy and more Mandy.
(3) Lars Sullivan beat Oney Lorcan. The size comparison is particularly impressive, but it is clear this Lars is quite large all around. Sullivan won with what was a hard slam after a crazy strong series of moves. This guy is big and strong. He got an “I’m impressed” cheer after his strong arm move that threw Orney for a huge flip. Still a good amount of boos for his winning.
(4) Aleister Black beat Hideo Itami. Itami got a mixed reaction. Black got the loudest reaction. There was a near fall after a falcon arrow from Hideo. Hideo called for GTS and Aleister slithered his way out and hit his Black Mass. Hideo had 99 percent of the match which was disappointing. I would rather see Aleister as a crazy dominant wrestler not totally unlike how we saw Asuka initially and mostly even still. Mostly boos for Hideo but still more cheers than I would have expected. When GTS was in position, Aleister slipped out and went for the Black Mass and won. Aleister is crazy good. There is no doubt this guy has IT.
(5) Kassius Ohno & mystery partner Drew McIntyre beat Riddick Moss & Tino Sabbatelli. Earlier in the night a video showed where Moss & Sabbatelli harassed Ohno in the locker room for being alone. Ohno said he’d get a partner and meet them in the ring. Before the match, McGhee Moss cut a promo to harass Ohno. During the match there was a “You can’t promo” chant toward Moss. There was a spot where Kassius had Moss by the leg and then tagged Drew. Moss begged for him to put his leg down and Kasius played to the audience to do it or not. Kassisus did gently put his leg down but then Drew immediately kicked him hard. McIntrye and Ohno ultimately won. McIntrye went all around the ring and too sweeted everyone. I even got to “too sweet” and shake the mans hand. He is a huge man. I was more impressed with him than I expected to be. I felt like along with Aleister, he had a the best presence of the night. Moss and Riddick had the most sincere boos of the night.
Intermission
William Regal came out as intermission ended and said there were 2,000 people in attendance. He said five years ago there were only about fifty people buying tickets. He was grateful for what we have helped it to grow to be. He reminded us NXT is nothing without us. At this point he had the loudest reaction of the night. Second to Aleister.
(6) Asuka pinned Ember Moon to retain the NXT Women’s Title. Moon’s eyes were blue tonight. Match started with Asuka dancing around and taking in crowd chants of “Asuka’s gonna kill you” and Ember ran up and kicked her hard. This was an intense match. They both impressed me. She competed with Aleister for second best reaction of the night. The match ended when Asuka pulled the ref in front of her and Ember jumped over the ref but Asuka reversed it and rolled her up and won.
(7) Sanity beat Authors of Pain via DQ so AOP retained the NXT Tag Team Titles. No Killian Dane and no Paul Ellering. The match started chaotic with fighting everywhere. After minutes of scrapping around outside, Drake got control of the match
EY still got back to fighting one of the AOP outside. Good match. One of the AOP fell when he was supposed to receive a neckbreaker and the audience yelled “you f—ed up,” especially after EY applied it properly to the next AOP. Shortly after EY pinned an AOP member, the other pulled the ref out by the legs at the two count. Drake got away, seemed shaken, got his composure, and called for the bell. He regained his composure better and made the call officially: “Your winners by disqualification is Sanity but still your NXT champions, AOP.” Heavy-hitting match. Great energy from both it AOP who still seemed a little green. They actually weren’t as large and intimidating as I assumed they would be.
(8) Robert Roode beat Roderick Strong to retain the NXT Championship. Strong got the most boos of any good guy. Some guy was standing at ringside taking phone pictures, maybe even video? Tons of cheers for Big Entrance Bobby Roode acted like he was going to gently hand his robe and such off to Kayla (the announcer of the night), but instead he dropped it hard on her. Tons of boos and a great smile from Roode. Even “Let’s go roddy” and “Let’s go Roode” chants. Multiple ringside spots. Multiple near falls including a DDT from Roode that was a very near three count. I heard in my head Corey Graves saying, “You can’t get any closer than that without the bell ringing.” Roode got frustrated and grabbed the ref who turned away and when he did. Then Roode mule-kicked Strong and did two DDTs in a row to get the win.
After the match, McIntrye came out and said you can always count on three things: Death, taxes, and Roode cheating to win. He promised he would always be there and come eight days at NXT Takeover Brooklyn he would win that championship. Roode looked terrrified. McIntrye then clapped for us and slapped a few hands ringside. This guy is good. I can see he is there to kick ass and be a great leader.
FINAL NOTES: As they started clearing us out, I shook the hand of the great ref Drake Wiertz. Then they started kicking us out. I got quite a few compliments on my “I’m a Cathy Kelley Guy.” Shirt before, during and after the show… Dave Meltzer was in attendance. After the show, when I asked if I could shake his hand he said sure and shook my hand and then saw my shirt and said “Cathy Kelly huh?….” “Yeah” I said in return. Anyway, good show overall. My only complaint was the weird guy next to me that has way too much spit that exits his mouth when he talks loudly or yells. And he talked loudly and yelled frequently this night… I was a it surprised about the energy level and I figured it was because it was NXT, but the next night I learned it was just the audience that night. There were quite a bit of children in the audience. More John Cena shirts than I would have expected. Overall, it was an enjoyable show… Merch table notes: Several NXT branded shirts. Where’s the Raw or SmackDown Live! shirts :)… The only main roster shirt I saw was Finn Bálor… Asuka shirts and masks… Glorious shirts and poster… Event poster “unsigned”…
NOW CHECK OUT THIS PREVIOUS REPORT: 8/12 NXT in Venice, Fla.: Kairi Sane & Macey Evans vs. Billie Kay & Peyton Royce, Velveteen Dream, Cear Bononi, Kona Reeves
If you attend a live event (WWE, NXT, ROH, Indy, and anything else!), please send a report like above to pwtorch@pwtorch.com.
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